The Fourth Girl

The Fourth Girl by Wendy Corsi Staub
3/1/25; 396 pages
Thomas & Mercer

The Fourth Girl by Wendy Corsi Staub is a highly recommended mystery following four friends.

In Mulberry Bay, New York, Caroline Winterfield, Midge Kennedy, Kelly Barrow, and Talia Shaw are childhood friends. On Prom night in 2000 Caroline walks into the woods and disappears forever. Her disappearance is treated as a drowning. Midge, Kelly, and Talia know what happened and are keeping the secret, but they plan to return to the site where she walked off and meet on the anniversary. 

Life intervenes with their plans and the three head in separate directions. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of that night, they plan a reunion and hopefully Caroline will meet them there. Once they meet it becomes clear that someone knows what happened and that another person may have witnessed something.

The plot is follows a familiar trope of friends keeping a secret but it is also entertaining and will hold your attention. The narrative jumps between time periods and characters so readers can understand what happened in the past, the intervening years, and in the present. It is somewhat predictable and the ending is not entirely satisfying.

What stands out in this version of the familiar plot are the well developed characters. Each character is portrayed as a unique individual and they all have distinct voices. As the narrative flips back and forth through time periods it is easy to follow who is who because they are distinguishable.

The Fourth Girl is a good choice for readers who appreciate fully realized characters in their mysteries. Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Saltwater

Saltwater by Katy Hays
3/25/25; 336 pages
Random House

Saltwater by Katy Hays is a highly recommended family drama/thriller following the wealthy Lingate family on the island of Capri.

The Lingate family returns every year to the island of Capri. In 1992, playwright Sarah Lingate, wife of Richard, the youngest heir to the Lingate oil fortune, is found dead below the cliffs. She left behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Her death was officially ruled an accident but there are questions about this. 

Now 30 year later, the Lingates are returning to Capri yet again. Helen has felt controlled and isolated by her family for years. Now, at thirty-three-years-old she has had enough. Helen along with Lorna Moreno, her friend and family assistant, is plotting her escape from her family's clutches. The plan involves an anonymous package that contains the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she drowned, reminding everyone of Sarah's death and threatening to expose secrets. But then Lorna disappears...

The atmospheric plot is tense, mysterious and secretive right from the start. The island is used to create a lock-room mystery which allows suspense to build and hidden secrets to be revealed. Capri is beautifully described and the setting becomes essential to the plot. There are plenty of hidden secrets and twists along the way in this study of family, wealth, and consequences. The plot does build slowly until the end, which will require some dedication to push through to the action.

The narrative mainly unfolds between the point-of-view of Helen and Lorna, with additional information from Sarah's story leading up to her death in 1992. Be suspicious of everyone and everything. Keep in mind that ultimately none of the characters are appealing or likable.

Saltwater is a good choice for those who enjoy novels populated by rich-people-behaving-badly. Thanks to Random House for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Ten Worst People in New York

The Ten Worst People in New York by Matt Plass
3/18/25; 320 pages
Crooked Lane Books

The Ten Worst People in New York by Matt Plass is a recommended investigative thriller.

After viewers of Ricky Talon's late night TV show are asked to vote for their choices, he shares a list of their chosen ten worst people in New York. It's all fun and games until two of the people on the list turn up dead. Their deaths appear to be by their own hand but recently widowed Special FBI Agent Alex Bedford suspects foul play. She is joined by her partner Pat Coombs in the investigation as they search for clues and connections.

At the same time, Jacob Felle, a British filmmaker, arrives in New York at the invitation of his brother-in-law, explorer Floyd Shaw. Jacob wants to connect with his estranged sister, Elizabeth, and to reconcile a long-buried family trauma. He learns that Elizabeth is going through one of her bad times and that she has dissolved her partnership in New Frontiers, an adventurers’ club she founded. Soon Jacobs search for his sister is on the same trajectory as Alex's search for the killer.

The writing is a bit uneven in this investigative thriller, however, the overall premise is intriguing, which is what kept me reading. There are some twists along the way, but the pacing is slow with a few bursts of action. One issue for me was a few details in the novel made it feel strangely dated now which leads to my caution to authors to leave social/political views on contemporary topics to themselves and out of books to extend the longevity of the novel.

I appreciated Alex and Jacob as characters. Alex had personal struggles, but tenaciously and insightfully pursued her investigative. Jacob was determined to find and uncover what was up with Elizabeth. Both of these characters, one professional and one amateur, are searching for the same answers about why target people on the list and who will be next.

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Paris Express

The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue
3/18/25; 288 pages
S&S/Summit Books

The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue is highly recommended historical fiction based on the infamous 1895 derailment at the Paris Montparnasse train station. The various characters in the novel are based on real people who were on the train, as explained at the end. Also intertwined in the plot are the real social issues of the day.

Donoghue does an exceptional job capturing the period details concerning the train and the people on it. There are a large number of characters to keep track of, but this allows the reader to meet a wide variety of average people on the train, while becoming privy to their lives and their place in society. The trip unfolds through the thoughts of these passengers. The main character is Mado Pelletier, a French anarchist, who boards the train with a homemade bomb. Knowing her intentions increases the tension.

Readers will know that the impending disaster is going to happen when they reach Paris. The excellent writing captures the atmosphere and makes a historical event come to life.

Thanks to S&S/Summit Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Story She Left Behind

The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry
3/18/25; 352 pages
Atria Books

The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry is a highly recommended historical mystery/family drama.

In 1927 author Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham left her home off the coast of South Carolina and disappeared, leaving her husband and eight-year-old daughter Clara behind. Bronwyn's acclaimed novel was written when she was twelve and she left behind an untranslatable sequel written in a language she invented. Now, in 1952, Clara Harrington is an illustrator and art teacher. She is divorced and has an eight-year-old daughter, Wynnie. 

One day Clara gets a call from London. Charles Jameson was cleaning out his father's library when he finds a case with papers and an envelope indicating they are for Clara Harrington, including her address and phone number, with a note saying they must be delivered in person. Charlie pays for Clara and her asthmatic daughter, Wynnie, to travel  to London, but their arrival coincides with the Great Smog of 1952. To ease Wynnie's struggle, Charlie then offers to let them stay at the family retreat in the Lake District which happens to hold answers about her mother's disappearance.

The well written mystery and family drama is descriptive and layered. The idea of a secret language and the mystery of Bronwyn's disappearance initially capture your attention. The story deals with family secrets, loss, love, forgiveness, abandonment, and legacy. The set up to the plot is interesting, but the pace felt glacially slow and the ending felt inconclusive and scattered. I struggled to keep up my interest because of the slow pace.

Clara, Wynnie, and Charlie are fully realized characters and portrayed as real people with strengths and weaknesses. The settings, both in South Carolina and Great Britain, are well described and come to life as the characters interact. The narrative unfolds mainly through the voice of Clara with some chapters from Charlie's point-of-view.

Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Fisherman's Gift

The Fisherman's Gift by Julia R Kelly
3/18/25; 368 pages
Simon & Schuster

The Fisherman's Gift by Julia R Kelly is a highly recommended historical domestic drama full of heartbreak set in Skerry, a remote Scottish fishing village.

In 1900 Dorothy Aitken is a schoolmistress in Skerry when a child is found washed ashore by the fisherman Joseph and circumstances result in Dorothy caring for him. She has lived there for years and all the villagers know of the heartbreaking tragedy she experienced years earlier when her young son Moses went missing and was presumed lost in the sea. Only his boot was found.

When Dorothy first arrived she struggled to be accepted in the close-knit gossipy village, which resulted in her setting herself apart from others. All those years ago she and Joseph fell in love but a local woman, Agnes, wanted Joseph for herself and made that clear. Meanwhile tongues were wagging as the gossip swirled around everything.

The past and the present collide in this even paced atmospheric historical tale of love, guilt, loss, grief, secrets, and disappointment. The narrative follows two timelines, the current action and years ago when Dorothy fell in love with Joseph. The plot unfolds through the characters of Dorothy, Agnes, Joseph, William, and other Skerry residents. 

The writing is really quite lovely in this literary historical tale. Normally I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction, but the descriptive passages and the care with which the characters were developed make this special. The characters are all portrayed as realistic people, full of flaws and failings and the world they are living in is equally dismal in many ways. Everyone has their own burdens, struggles, and secrets

The Fisherman's Gift is a great choice for those who appreciate historical literary fiction. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Splinter Effect

Splinter Effect by Andrew Ludington
3/18/25; 320 pages
St. Martin's Press

Splinter Effect by Andrew Ludington is a highly recommended time traveling tale. If you are someone who thinks about ancient Rome at least once a day, this will be an excellent choice for you.

Robert "Rabbit" Ward is a chrono-archaeologist who travels through time for the Smithsonian on sponsored expeditions to the past to secure precious artifacts moments before they are lost to history. Considered one of the best now, he still regrets a failure from twenty years ago when he lost his mentee, Aaron, and a precious menorah of the Temple of Jerusalem hidden in ancient Rome in 455 CE. Now new evidence reveals the menorah reappearance in 535 CE Constantinople and Rabbit is ready to find it this time. Problems surface in Constantinople when, among other things, an unlicensed “stringer” named Helen, is also hunting the menorah.

At the beginning the Splinter Effect as it relates to time travel is explained to set the rules into place how it works, but not a lot of time is spent on detailed science fiction elements of the plot. The pace at the beginning is even, but it does pick up quickly later in the novel. Rabbit is an interesting, fully realized individual. There are action scenes and plenty of danger mixed into the narrative.

This is an imaginative action story, but is mostly a historical fiction novel set in Constantinople in 535 CE. I liked the novel, but all the historical details bogged me down at times. Those who love the history of ancient Rome and can enjoy a time traveling tale will likely also appreciate this novel. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via . My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.